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Exploring Text-Type-Based Translation Equivalence

Posted on:2005-10-14Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:D L ZhaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:1115360152956233Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Translation is usually defined as a process of establishing equivalence between the source text and the target text while equivalence is often seen as one of the most problematic and controversial notions in translation studies. To a great extent, translation theory, the linguistic approach to translation in particular, has evolved around the notion of equivalence and various theories have been proposed and elaborated from different perspectives. Equivalence has been defined in terms of meaning, function, effect, and even form. On the basis of his semiotic approach to language, Roman Jakobson introduces "equivalence in difference". From a communicative point of view, Eugene A. Nida distinguishes between "formal equivalence" and "dynamic equivalence". Adopting a more linguistic approach and following the Hallidayan model of language, J. C. Catford makes a distinction between "textual equivalence" and "formal correspondence". These types of equivalence are mainly constructed on the basis of formal linguistics, which is highly sentence-bound and views meaning within a rather limited scope. As a result, translation equivalence is generally discussed at word or sentence level before text-linguistics finds its application to translation studies. In the recent trends of translation research the views of translation as text and equivalence as a textual notion have become a general agreement among translators and translation scholars. More recent development in translation studies, especially the development as a result of the application of the Hallidayan model of discourse analysis, makes it possible to move beyond the view of translation as text to the view of translation as text type, which inevitably leads to the discussion of equivalence in relation to the notion of text type. This dissertation is aimed at contributing some efforts to the discussion of the relationship between translation equivalence and text type on the basis of the view of translation as text type and a translation-oriented text typology.The present study is located within the framework of the linguistic approach to translation, which has been dominating the field ever since the beginning of the systematic translation research. Within this framework, various linguistic models have been proposed for the investigation of translation both as a process and as a product. In the 1990s, discourse analysis came to prominence in translation studies. Among the different approaches to discourse analysis, the Hallidayan model based on systemic-functional grammar has the greatest influence. This background serves as the point of departure for this dissertation, in which a text-linguistic perspective of discourse analysis will be adopted.Equivalence and text type are the central notions in translation studies and text linguistics respectively; and they are probably the most controversial and problematic notions in their respective research areas. In spite of the criticisms and even attacks against it, the notion of equivalence survives and evolves, and constitutes an essential topic in the latest works on translation studies. So, instead of being discarded, the concept of equivalence deserves further research effort so that it could catch up with the advancing pace of translation studies. Ever since Katharina Reiss's pioneering study in the early 1970s, considerable recent efforts have been devoted to the study of the relationship between translation and text typology, and it has been widely accepted that translation methods vary according to text types. Two major text typologies, which are based on different theories of language function, have been adopted in translation studies: the functional typology developed by Reiss, and the "comprehensive model of context" by Hatim and Mason. Since the Hatim-Mason text typology is considered as being able to better serve translation purposes and to accommodate the mutifunctionality of text, it is adopted in the dissertation. However, it seems that translators and translation s...
Keywords/Search Tags:translation, equivalence, text typology, text type, genre, register
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